I’m currently writing a memoir for Simon & Schuster titled Race Against Time that explores the prosecution of these unpunished killings from the civil rights era.

Before starting my book, my co-writer Mike Roden and I had finished three screenplays. The first was a fictional dark comedy called Famine. The third was an adaptation of Martin Clark’s novel, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living.

The second script, which has already been through a number of rewrites, could wind up on the big screen. Titled Till, it’s based on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. The main character of the story is NAACP leader Medgar Evers, who investigated that killing as well as many others during the civil rights movement.

Mike said the story of Emmett Till is “one that needs to be told to present and future generations, not just because of its tragedy, of man’s inhumanity to another based on race, or of the terrible injustice that came from the killers going free, but also because of what transpired as a result of this tragedy and this injustice — it inspired others to change things for the better.”

About The Author

Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., runs Journey to Justice, a blog that explores the intersection of justice and culture in this place we call the United States​. His work has helped put four Klansmen behind bars, including the assassin of NAACP leader Medgar Evers in 1963 and the man who orchestrated the Klan’s 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. His latest stories have helped lead to the arrest of serial killer suspect Felix Vail — the last known person seen with three women. Mitchell, a 2009 MacArthur fellow, is writing a book on cold cases from the civil rights era.